INDIANAPOLIS – The University of New Hampshire gymnastics team has earned a bid to the 2012 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Fayetteville Regional, hosted by the University of Arkansas, it was announced Monday. The Fayetteville Regional is scheduled for Saturday, April 7, beginning at 4 p.m. (CDT) at Barnhill Arena.

This marks the 30th NCAA Regional appearance for the Wildcats in 31 years and the 32nd postseason appearance in head coach Gail Goodspeed's 33 years at the University.

"That's our goal every year, to make the regional championship," Goodspeed said. "Sometimes people take it for granted, and we can never take it for granted. It's gotten harder and harder, and it just shows our team is at the level we want to be."

UNH (14-10, 6-6 EAGL), which is ranked 29th in the nation, learned during the live NCAA.com selection show that it would be the No. 5 seed in the Fayetteville Regional. Third-ranked UCLA, the inaugural Pac-12 champion, claimed the top seed, followed by No. 2 seed and 10th-ranked Arkansas of the Southeast Conference. No. 15 Boise State, an independent program, is seeded third, followed by 19th-ranked and fourth-seeded Missouri, which tied for second place at the Big 12 Championship last weekend. East Atlantic Gymnastics League rival Maryland is the No. 6 seed.

New Hampshire scored a 195.225 to finish sixth at the EAGL Championship on Saturday at the University of Pittsburgh's Fitzgerald Field House. The Wildcats' Regional Qualifying Score is 195.120, they averaged a 194.358 and their season-high total was a 195.800 at the UNH Invitational quad-meet March 3.

In 2011, fourth-seeded UNH scored a 194.500 to finish in fifth place at the Norman Regional, hosted by the University of Oklahoma. The 'Cats won their lone NCAA Regional championship in 1994 and also finished runner-up in back-to-back seasons (1982, '83).

Through a random draw it was determined that the Wildcats would begin the meet on balance beam. UNH then moves to a bye in the second rotation, followed by floor exercise, vault, a bye and uneven bars in the sixth and final rotation.

The last time UNH competed at Arkansas was in a regular-season quad-meet March 9, 2007.

The top two teams from each regional site will advance to the 2012 National Collegiate Women's Gymnastics Championship, hosted by Georgia Tech University, at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Ga., from April 20-22.

Six teams, five all-around competitors (who are not on a qualifying team) and one individual event specialist per event (who has a minimum RQS of 9.4) were named to each of the six predetermined host sites.

For more information on the National Collegiate Women's Gymnastics Championship, visit www.ncaa.com. For more on the UNH gymnastics program, visit www.unhwildcats.com.